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Saturday, October 11, 2014

11 Oct - Blogs I'm Following

Friday, Nick Confessore wrote in the *NY Times* how secret, dark money from
undisclosed sources is dominating the elections and that it will be even
worse in 2016. Although several corporate whores were elevated to the
Supreme Court to specifically accomplish these kinds of virulently
anti-democracy stratagems— think Bush I and II nominees Clarence Thomas,
Sammy Alito and John Roberts plus Reagan holdover Antonin Scalia— the Court
framed their *Citizens United* decision in a very different way.
The dominance of secretly funded advertising defies one of the underlying
assumptions... more »

According to a report published by the *Jewish Telegraph Agency*, a number
of rabbis in America are currently lobbying Immigration and Customs
Enforcement officials to either cancel or delay deporting criminals who
have illegally migrated to the United States because doing so would be "an
injustice" that infringes upon the "human rights" of the illegal invaders.
I wonder what these rabbis have to say about Israeli immigration policy,
where *illegal immigrants are arrested, interned in concentration camps,
and deported en mass*?
Reform rabbis are contacting Immigration and Customs En... more »

New rollers arrived, necessary because the old ones were thirty years old
and past saving. I remember what those cost, and I can tell you they've
gone up about two hundred percent. They also arrived without roller trucks.
Trucks are the rubber-tired wheels at the ends of the rollers, whose job is
to roll on tracks on either side of the bed of the press. I could see that
the ones I had might fit the new rollers, but they were fused onto the old
rollers by bimetallic corrosion. I could order new ones, or ...
... several hours later, having banged on every tool in the shop with every
o... more »

Children are vulnerable to environmental harms, especially radionuclides
from nuclear power plan plumes - 500X typical background - produced
during
re-fueling:
Radioactive spikes from nuclear plants - a likely cause of childhood
leukemia. Dr Ian Fairlie 29th September 2014. The Ecologist
http://www.theecologist.org/News/news_analysis/2574389/radioactive_spikes_from_nuclear_plants_a_likely_cause_of_childhood_leukemia.html
When
nuclear reactors are refueled, a 12-hour spike in radioactive
emissions exposes local people to levels of radioactivity up to 500
times
greater than during no... more »

Documentary Film Claims That There Is Another NSA Leaker with Higher Rank
Than Snowden
October 11th, 2014
Via: The Hollywood Reporter:
A second National Security Agency whistleblower exists within the ranks of
government intelligence.
That bombshell comes toward the end of Citizenfour, a new documentary from
filmmaker Laura Poitras about NSA informant Edward Snowden that had its
world premiere on Friday at the New York Film Festival.
In the key scene, journalist Glenn Greenwald visits Snowden at a hotel room
in Moscow. Fearing they are being taped, Greenwald communicates with
... more »

*In this Season 6 preview, Good Wife cast members talk about the new
season.*
*"Six seasons in, however, I've become weary of evangelizing for [The Good
Wife]. Recently, I had lunch with an entirely charming TV maker, who was
educated and intelligent about many forms of television but had never
watched The Good Wife, because, he admitted with a shrug, he perceived it
as being 'for women.' Although he was a fantastic lunch companion, he's
dead now."*
-- New Yorker *TV critic Emily Nussbaum, in* "Shedding
Her Skin: *The Good Wife*'s thrilling transformation"
*by Ken*
When I say in t... more »

*"Requiem"*
by Kurt Vonnegut
“The crucified planet Earth,
should it find a voice and a sense of irony,
might now well say of our abuse of it,
"Forgive them, Father, they know not what they do."
․
The irony would be that we know what we are doing.
․
When the last living thing has died on account of us,
how poetical it would be if Earth could say,
in a voice floating up perhaps
from the floor of the Grand Canyon,
"It is done. People did not like it here.”

*"Gov’t Models Show Typhoon Making Direct Hit On Fukushima"*
Center of Vongfong expected over nuclear plant Tuesday
by ENENews.com
*"Japan Times, Oct. 9, 2014:* "A supertyphoon is on course to hit Japan
over the weekend, meteorologists said Wednesday. The monstrous storm
“strength is very much similar to Haiyan,”said a meteorologist at the
Meteorological Agency. Vongfong was registering gusts of the same strength.
Its present course will see it smash into Japan some time over the weekend,
just days after another typhoon."
*Washington Post, Oct. 9, 2014:* "Imagery from satellite (and ... more »

*By the President of the United States of America*
*A Proclamation**Whereas* recent events in Korea and elsewhere constitute a
grave threat to the peace of the world and imperil the efforts of this
country and those of the United Nations to prevent aggression and armed
conflict; and
*Whereas* world conquest by communist imperialism is the goal of the forces
of aggression that have been loosed upon the world; and
*Whereas*, if the goal of communist imperialism were to be achieved, the
people of this country would no longer enjoy the full and rich life they
have with God's help buil... more »

Tulane's Cowen Institute has been CorpEd's hothouse of dissembling and lies
in New Orleans for a long time. Some years back it became obvious to
anyone looking at their annual celebrations of the privatization of NOLA
schools that they were making it up.
Now finally, they have stepped beyond the bounds that Tulane University's
enablers can stomach. They just withdrew the last propaganda piece from
their website and issued an apology. Wonder if they will do the same for
the other crap they have been posting for years. Here is a clip from
Times-Picayune:
In a high-profile embar... more »

Made it to Rangeley, Maine to start our Walk for Peace & A Sustainable
Future...... invited to a turkey supper with more than a hundred people at
the local UCC church where we are sleeping on the floor - they just had Br.
Senji Kanaeda sing an old Negro spiritual to the assembled ....beautiful
start to our peace walk!
The reception has been fantastic.

And talking about programmes I enjoyed....
When I was about 20 I had the idea of fusing science with poetry (as you
do) and I remember writing a love poem that used imagery drawn from X-ray
crystallography. I recall comparing the diffraction pattern of regularly
spaced spots produced by the process to the freckles of a young lady I
particularly admired at the time. It was a god-awful poem (most of them
were), but I had vivid flashbacks to it whilst listening to *An Eye for
Pattern: The Letters of Dorothy Hodgkin *over five day this past week on
Radio 4.
Dorothy Hodgkin won the N... more »

October 11, 2014 There’s an old joke (I remember it as part of Jack
Benny’s comedy routine back in the 1950s) about the wealthy penny pincher
who was confronted by an armed robber saying, “Your money or your life?”
The … Continue reading →

A right-wing propaganda site reported Thursday that Mike Huckabee fears the
Republican Party is getting too liberal. In poll after poll, the vast
majority of normal Americans think the Republican Party has drifted way too
far to the right. But Huckabee is now whining publicly about starting a
third, more reactionary political party.
Two days after threatening to leave the Republican Party and run for the
White House in 2016 as an independent because the GOP has "abdicated" on
same-sex marriage, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee told Newsmax that the
GOP would be walking away fro... more »

------------------------------
*Ebola Update — Paul Craig Roberts*
------------------------------
October 11, 2014 | Original Here Go
here to sign up to receive email notice of this news letter
Ebola Update
Paul Craig Roberts
A number of readers have read reports that the CIA was active in West
Africa just prior to the ebola outbreak, and some have read reports that
the ebola strain is a weaponized version engineered to spread by air and
surface contact. Some readers ask me to confirm or refute these reports,
and others want to know if the... more »

[image: Ocean floor]
Ocean bottom viewing is now increasing rapidly and we can expect an
excellent view in the next twenty years or so. Yet we already have a
surprise. The ocean floor is peppered with volcanoes that are not so
apparent in continental geology. The instant take home is that the handful
we see are the scant above water reps of a massive population. The sea
floor turns out to be hugely active.
That actually put a niggling question sitting there in the back of my mind
to rest. The process is ongoing, and very active and extremely common. We
have just see... more »

This is another round on the wheat problem which is clearly serious as it
can be handed most of the blame for the outbreak of obesity.
More work is needed on alternatives as well as we might expect. We also
need to know if any form of wheat is viable in some way.
Regardless the solution itself is simple enough and that is to limit
yourself to a rare serving. That is certainly less than every day. At least
then it is a treat only.
*Why Wheat is One of the Worst Carbs for Your Health*
*September 3, 201*
*Natasha Longo,*
*http://www.wakingtimes.com/2014/09/03/wheat-one-worst... more »

This is obviously important and cleanly proves the existence of a
single founder population. We still had ample hybridization coming off
that founder population but only much later when it would remain a minority
effect. That founder population did come out of the Bering area and off
course migrated along the sea coast and then eventually inland until all
the continents of North and South America was populated.This certainly
took place as early as 20,000 BP and possibly and plausibly much sooner.
Much later other came and that includes a substantial injection of
Europeans duri... more »

It is about common sense after all, however this is directly from a
licensed nutritionist who was taught incorrect doctrine. She corrected
herself, but most others may never go there. Thus it is common to find
a nutritionist still promoting nonsense. Change has not come easily and
just how regulated is this industry.
The food industry is mired in scientific controversy and self serving
commercial misinformation. There is no truly safe source of information
for the consumer at all.
The only positive is that the long term trend is good.
*8 Food Myths I Learned at Nutriti... more »

The Friday and Saturday edition of the TandT for this week are the worst I
have yet seen in that whole, wretched Irving press.
For Wednesday, the section A news is not just trivial; some is downright
bizarre. On A2, there is a story that there's no need for an Ebola panic in
NB. Okay. That's a reasonable story to report on. But the big picture to
illustrate the story is of parking lot construction at the Dumont hospital.
A photo, like a story, should tell us something. What the hell does this
photo tell us about Ebola?
Below it is a story about roadwork in Moncton wrapping up. And... more »

U.S. sailors inspect aircraft before launching them from the flight deck of
the aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush in the Persian Gulf, Oct. 2,
2014. U.S. Navy photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Joshua Card
*U.S.-Led Air War In Syria Is Off To A Difficult Start -- Washington Post*
REYHANLI, Turkey — The U.S.-led air war in Syria has gotten off to a rocky
start, with even the Syrian rebel groups closest to the United States
turning against it, U.S. ally Turkey refusing to contribute and the plight
of a beleaguered Kurdish town exposing the limitations of the strategy.
U.S. officia... more »

Oh for Gawd's sake!
Some despicable scrote has tried to nick Morecambe's main tourist attraction,
the Eric Morecambe statue.
Every day, whether sunshine has been brought or not, hordes of locals and
tourists lift a leg and raise an arm in honour of Morecambe's favourite son
(and his pal, Ernie) and get snapped by their friends and family for so
doing.
And now someone - apparently a Morecambe man - has attempted to saw
through Eric's standing leg and make off with him.
The statue has now been removed by the council for repairs.
Well, I've heard it all: Syria, missing airlin... more »

Per Paul Merton's autobiography as reported in The Telegraph:
"I heard about him (Dave Lee Travis) 20 years ago. A technician somewhere
told me that there was a rule at the BBC: Don't leave him alone with a
woman."
If the BBC knew about Dave Lee Travis's pecadillos but did nothing to stop
him, let alone report him to the police, then are they not also guilty of
an offence?

Harry Paterson is a socialist activist from Nottingham where he has spent
his political life. His first book, an excellent history of the 1984-5
miners' strike in Nottinghamshire, *Look Back In Anger* was published this
summer. You can follow Harry on Twitter here
- Do you regularly read blogs? If so, which ones?
I do. Yes. Your own, of course. Richard Seymour’s, too. I dip in and out of
the hilariously-named Socialist Unity from time-to-time. Although far less
frequently than I once did.
I used to be a big fan of David Osler’s blog before he shut it down. He’s a
good mate is Dav... more »

Now that the Republican primary is over, Scott Brown is trying to present
himself to New Hampshire voters as more moderate and more mainstream than
his record shows he is— particularly on issues important to women voters
(and to men who like and respect women). Brown has been lying, claiming he
has always supported women having the ability to get contraception easily.
He recently said he has supported that "since I was 18 years old." In light
of his anti-women voting record from he was a senator from Massachusetts,
Politifact rates Brown’s claims “mostly false.” And even a far mor... more »

Julia McFarlane is beside herself with joy! “O frabjous day! Callooh!
Callay! The BBC has gone to town with my colourful but moving report on
the gruesome injuries in Gaza, complete with graphic images.”
Next up, Julia McFarlane takes her camera to Kobane to capture poignant
images of civilians caught in the battle between the Kurds and ISIS. Not.
Okay, so there’s nothing wrong with highlighting the courage and hard work
of those doctors who had to struggle with an overwhelming number of
casualties in extremely difficult circumstances. But it does seem
gratuitous to open it ... more »

Anti War.......
169 Killed Across Iraq As Bombs Return to Baghdad
by Margaret Griffis, October 07, 2014
Print This | Share This
At least 169 people were killed and 55 were wounded across Iraq on Tuesday.
Also,*Canada*‘s parliament has authorized airstrikes in Iraq.
The strategic value of water in *Iraq* has made it one of the favorite
weapons of the Islamic State. Not only do they continue their attempts to
control the Mosul and Haditha Dams, they have also been diverting water
away from villages that refuse to come under their control. And, they also
are demolishing levees in order ... more »

------------------------------
http://youtu.be/hlKtUofd2Qg?list=UUvsye7V9psc-APX6wV1twLg
CDC Secretly Panicking Over Ebola
*Published on Oct 10, 2014*
Alex Jones welcomes Dr. Edward Group to the show and Dr. Group shares some
information he got at a conference over how the CDC actually feels about
the possibility of an Ebola outbreak.
http://youtu.be/XfkE-7-oJNY?list=UUvsye7V9psc-APX6wV1twLg
CDC Orders Hermetically Sealed Coffins For Ebola Victims
*Published on Oct 11, 2014*
The CDC has instructed funeral homes to bury Ebola victims in hermetically
sealed caskets, a potential... more »

People's Daily
*Why Do So Many Chinese Expect War? -- Julian Snelder, National Interest*
A professor of classical music in Beijing startled me in 2010 when he said,
“When I look at my students, I fear we are headed for war within five
years.”
“War with whom?,” I enquired.
“With anyone.”
His students don't seem like fenqing (“angry youth”). They are in a musical
conservatory, after all, not a military academy. Many have overseas
connections. But they are also ambitious, emotional, fiercely nationalist
and for them war – any war – would be a gratifying affirmation of their
country... more »

"...and coils or writhes, like a bloated, muddy python..."
And now for something completely different...
I would never really have expected myself to warm to a series of short BBC
talks by an *Observer* columnist with a taste for the French
structural/post-structuralist/quasi-Marxist Roland Barthes [and fancy the
BBC commissioning that!...er?!?], yet warm to them I most certainly have.
In fact, I'm even hotter for them than one of Nando's extra extra hot
peri-peri marinades - the subject of Peter Conrad's third piece in his BBC
Radio 4 series, which started last Monday.
Were I an... more »

Reuters / Finbarr O'ReillyReuters / Finbarr O'Reilly
*Its funny after you have had an NDE, its kind of humorous to think people
don't believe it happens... but its all perspective I suppose... -AK*
Found at:
http://removingtheshackles.blogspot.com/2014/10/life-after-death-scientists-gather-out.html
*'Life after death'? Scientists gather 'out-of-body' evidence in
'largest-ever' study*
Source: http://rt.com/news/195056-life-after-death-study/
Published time: October 11, 2014 08:28
Edited time: October 11, 2014 13:16
It seems that scientists have finally offered evidence that conscious... more »

*U.S. And UK To Test Big Bank Collapse In Joint Model Run -- Reuters*
Oct 10 (Reuters) - Regulators from the United States and the United Kingdom
will get together in a war room next week to see if they can cope with any
possible fall-out when the next big bank topples over, the two countries
said on Friday.
Treasury Secretary Jack Lew and the UK's Chancellor of the Exchequer,
George Osborne, on Monday will run a joint exercise simulating how they
would prop up a large bank with operations in both countries that has
landed in trouble.
Also taking part are Federal Reserve Chair Jan... more »

A full circle rainbow was featured as NASA's Astronomy Photo of the Day
this week.(Photo: NASA/Colin Leonhardt, Birdseye View Photography)
Full circle rainbow featured by NASA
Brandie Piper, KSDK (St. Louis) 6:23 p.m. MST October 3, 2014
COTTESLOE BEACH, Australia – Have you ever seen a full circle rainbow
before?
Most people see rainbows from the ground, which makes them look like an
arch. But when you see a rainbow from the air, you can see it's actually a
full circle.
Earlier this week NASA posted this photo, taken over Cottesloe Beach,
Australia, as the Astronomy Picture of the ... more »

This article appeared in the Opinion pages of the *New York Times* on 10
October, 2014, two days before the Bolivian national elections. While this
site does not agree with all the author's views, his piece is well written
and informative and much better than the usual anti-Morales diatribe
written in the US press.
_____________________________________________________________________
BUENOS AIRES — On Sunday, Bolivians are widely expected to re-elect their
president, Evo Morales, for an unprecedented third term. He is still
overwhelmingly po... more »

An aerial view shows Kyiv's Independence (Maidan) Square following some of
the worst clashes between anti-government protesters and riot police. (Olga
Yakimovich / Reuters)
*Special Report: Flaws Found In Ukraine's Probe Of Maidan Massacre --
Reuters*
(Reuters) - For millions of Ukrainians, it was a crime against humanity. In
February, more than 100 protesters were gunned down in the Maidan uprising
that toppled the president, Viktor Yanukovich. The victims are now known as
“the Heavenly Hundred.”
In April, prosecutors arrested three suspects, members of an elite unit
within the... more »

http://aishanorth.wordpress.com/2014/10/11/a-short-update-on-the-energies-68/
*A short update on the energies*
By Aisha North,
October 11, 2014
As the quickening continues, you will all at some time or another begin to
lose your footing, and we do mean that in the very best sense. You see,
what we are referring to, is your old way of maintaining focus and balance
by striving to keep the old coordinates in equilibrium, and now, you will
all need to be cast off from that old foundation in one way or the other in
order for you to be able to complete the trajectory that you started upon... more »

http://www.today.com/
Apparently, many journalists -- including Andrew Coyne -- believe that
Stephen Harper's decision to join the bombing brigades in Iraq is
justified. Michael Harris believes that Harper's decision is folly and that
the reaction to it illustrates "the slow collapse" of Canadian journalism.
After all, when it comes to war in the Middle East, Harper has a record.
That record includes not only his full throated campaign to join George
Bush's invasion of Iraq, but also his support for military action in Libya:
... more »

Britain's Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne (R) speaks to U.S.
Treasury Secretary, Jack Lew.(Reuters / Alastair Grant)
http://on.rt.com/1cqv9nBankocalypse drill: US and UK to run ‘too big to
fail’ collapse simulation
Published time: October 11, 2014 03:07
The US and UK will stage a comprehensive simulation next week check whether
the countries’ financial and banking sectors are still vulnerable to the
problem of the ‘too big to fail’ institutions and coordinate their actions
in case of such collapse.
Government financial leaders from Britain and US will simulate a failure o... more »

Safak Timur
If you were wondering how Gavin Esler's *Dateline London* is getting on,
well today's edition was an interesting one.
Since my last major review of the programme's guest list in August we've
seen some more classic left-biased *Dateline *panels.
There was one (on 13 September) consisting of Abdel Bari Atwan, Agnes
Poirier, Steve Richards (of the *Independent*) and Kevin McKenna (of the
*Observer*), where all four guests came from the Left, and there was
another (on 4 October) with Abdel Bari Atwan, Steve Richards, Marc Roche
and Diane Wei Liang, where three out of the ... more »

10 OCTOBER 2014
Harvey Organ's Gold and Silver Blog Has Been 'Deleted by Court Order'
Several patrons have asked me if I know what has happened to Harvey Organ's
precious metals blog.
I have been given to understand by an email that his site on Google
blogger has been 'deleted by court order' and in accordance with Google's terms
of service and content policy.
The specific terms of the court order or the originator have not been
revealed to me. It is not clear to me that Harvey himself knows this yet.
I had thought Harvey's Precious Metals blog was fairly benign, and Google
has be... more »

Yesterday Marianne Williamson endorsed Shenna Bellows for the U.S. Senate
seat occupied by Susan Collins. "We desperately need candidates who carry
the banner of new possibilities for America,” she wrote to her supporters,
“and we need to support them in every way possible when they appear. Shenna
Bellows represents such a banner. Let's help her get to Washington, so she
can do the things we want to see done there." There were 5 specific points
Marianne seemed most enthusiastic about after meeting personally with
Shenna.
*•* As Executive Director of the American Civil Liberties U... more »

The first outbreak to be seen on the map is the Plague of Justinian of 541
and 542. It ravaged areas of modern-day Europe, Northern Africa, and
Russia, killing 5,000 people a day at its peak
*The World's Deadliest Outbreaks: Interactive Map Shows The Human Cost Of
Flu, Bubonic Plague And Ebola Globally Since 541 -- Daily Mail*
* Interactive map shows the reach of diseases, as well as death tolls and
their symptoms, such as fever and rashes
* It details the world's most deadly outbreaks since 541 - when the Plague
of Justinian struck Europe and beyond
* Map also includes modern outbr... more »

*The great credential race*
One of the most deplorable features of modern education is the great
credentials race. Competition for the best jobs has led to job applicants
trying to trump one another by offering higher and higher levels of
education. The end result is that many jobs which were once perfectly
well-handled by people with just high school -- or even grade school --
education now require a college degree and may even require graduate
qualifications. This has become hugely expensive for students in both time
and money, with no clear benefit to the community.
Teachi... more »

*Dana Nuccitelli and The Guardian are at it again*
*Nuca is always the same. He gives lots of links in support of his
assertions but if you follow those links back they always lead to dubious
claims by fellow Warmists.Below is the first part of a hit-piece that he
has just done in The Guardian on some prominent skeptics. I have not
reproduced his links but you can get them from the original. Follow them
through and you never get to any proof of anything -- just theories, models
and speculation. Warmists have nothing else. I have by the way seen an
email from Fred Singer... more »

From the Crimson two weeks ago:
A dozen members of the Student Labor Action Movement assembled outside
Massachusetts Hall on Friday afternoon to deliver a letter to University
President Drew G. Faust, imploring Harvard to cut ties with Teach For
America if it does not make several key changes to its program by Oct. 8.
The effort is part of a larger national movement started by United Students
Against Sweatshops that criticizes Teach For America, a nation-wide program
that recruits college graduates to teach in low-income communities for at
least two years, for undermining the quali... more »

In his 10/10 speech President Ma urges China to try democracy, first in
Hong Kong, and the whole world reports on it (LA Times, The Guardian via AFP,
IBTimes). Hong Kong's importance is at last putting Taiwan on the world
stage, as an up-and-coming writer on Taiwan reminded me in chat today, to
our mutual satisfaction.
The Taiwan Mainland Affairs Council followed Ma in calling for democracy in
Hong Kong...
Protecting Hong Kong people's basic human rights such as freedom of
assembly and speech and allowing Hong Kong democracy to blossom "will not
only guarantee Hong Kong's stabili... more »

*Published on October 1, 2014*
Experts present revealing evidence of the dangerous effects of
Geo-Engineering Chemtrails has had on nature and human health.
Scientists, doctors, pilots, meteorologists and more share their concerns
with the Shasta County Board of Supervisors in a Hearing on Chemtrails and
Geoengineering from July 15, 2014
Please send this video to your local politicians and anyone you feel can
make a difference.
Original video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4WhY...
Watch the full 3 hour hearing here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugXhF...
*Source: h... more »

From Save Our Schools New Jersey (my bolds):
If you are concerned about data privacy - both your own and that of your
children - please read this legislation, which the full NJ Assembly is
voting on Thursday.
It would create a longitudinal (Pre-K through post college employment) data
tracking system on each student who enters New Jersey public schools or
pre-schools, attends a NJ university or works in NJ.
The data would be identifiable to that individual and would include:
Individual level enrollment, demographic, and program participation data;
performance on each State assessmen... more »

Here's a delightful quiz to brighten up this October morning. Can you tell
your 'biased BBC' from your 'biased *Guardian*'?
Below are the news headlines from five UK media organisations at 11.00 am
on Saturday 11 October 2014. From their running orders can you work out
which media organisation it is?
There's one each from (in alphabetical order) BBC News, the *Guardian*, ITV
News, Sky News and the *Telegraph*. Which is which?
[Answers in the comments field below.]
*Mystery media outlet 1*
1. Ebola exercise to test Britain's readiness
2. UN warning as deaths from Ebola pass 4,000... more »

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-10-09/last-time-it-was-crazy-stock-market-crashed
Last Time It Was This Crazy, the Stock Market Crashed
Submitted by testosteronepit on 10/09/2014 23:16 -0400
Wolf Richter www.wolfstreet.com www.amazon.com/author/wolfrichter
It’s anecdotal evidence, but it’s everywhere in San Francisco and Silicon
Valley. A neighbor was cooling her heels by the curb, suitcase next to her.
She’s going to Europe on a “vacation-thing,” organized and paid for by her
company, she told me. A team-building perk. She’s a coder at a startup, her
first job out of colle... more »

*A Taichung road.*
My friend the awesome Cheryl Robbins writes:
This Website contains detailed information about two-day cycling tour
itineraries along the east coast of Taiwan in October and November. They
include stops and overnight stays in indigenous Amis communities. Great
natural scenery, culture, hospitality, cycling...For those requiring an
English-language tour guide an extra benefit is that it will be me! Who
could ask for more?
www.u-design.url.tw/2014bike/index02.html?refresh=1
_______________________
[Taiwan] Don't miss the comments below! And check out my blog and it... more »

“The Palestinians accuse the Israelis of genocide” Yeah, but
“Israel sees its armed forces as the most moral in the world” and
“Israel calls Hamas ‘terrorists’ whose every operation is a war crime” Mmm,
but
“Hamas sees its resistance to occupation as legitimate.” Yeah.
That’s one way of establishing false moral equivalence between Hamas and
Israel.
“*The Palestinians accuse the Israelis of genocide*”
.........and, purportedly, on the other hand:
“*Israel sees its armed forces as the most moral in the world. Israel calls
Hamas terrorists whose every operation is a war crime.*”
........ more »

There was an interesting interview on this week's *Newswatch *with the
BBC's Chief International Correspondent Lyse Doucet - so interesting that
I'll transcribe it for you.
She discussed the dangers faced by journalists in the light of the
self-proclaimed Islamic State (S-PIS?). I'd never thought of them having
'sleeper cells' before. Though Israel and Gaza may be almost entirely safe
for BBC reporters, places like Syria or Iraq (or Yemen or Pakistan, etc,
etc) are far from safe, and getting ever less safe. I would not want to be
a BBC reporter in such places for anything in the ... more »

[image: Luftwaffe A-400M]The first Airbus A400M new generation airlifter
for the German Air Force has now been painted in its new colours at the
Airbus Defence and Space facility in Seville, Spain.
The dark, matte tone reduces the visibility of aircraft at altitude, as
well as being radar-absorbent to make it harder to detect by radar.
The craftsmen in Seville used around 500kg of paint – enough to paint about
100 family cars.
Read more

[image: RS-24 Yars ICBM]Russian rocket divisions received in the third
quarter of the current year five ballistic missiles of the Yars road mobile
complex, head of the Defense Ministry’s department of military
representations Oleg Stepanov told Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu on Friday.
Besides, the Strategic Missile Forces have received six alerting vehicles
and 12 training units.
Russia has intensified retraining of officers of Strategic Missile Troops
to mobile ground-based Yars missile systems.
Source

[image: HAF Block-52 F-16]Greece is in talks with the US and Bulgaria about
selling some of its old F-16 fighter jets to Sofia and leasing new ones
from Washington, Kathimerini understands, Greek eKathimerini writes.
NATO asked Bulgaria in February to update its air force’s capability and
the country’s defense officials have approached Athens about the
possibility of buying between six and eight Fighting Falcon planes, sources
said.
The issue was first discussed when the country’s two defense ministers met
in March.
Read more

[image: F-22 Raptor]The Air Force could not determine if it paid jet engine
maker Pratt & Whitney “fair and reasonable” prices for spare parts for
engines that power the stealthy F-22 Raptor, a Department of Defense
Inspector General’s report has concluded.
The Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, based at Wright-Patterson, also
could not determine how much it paid for individual spare parts under a
$1.6 billion sustainment contract on the F119 engine on the
fifth-generation, supersonic fighter jet, the report said.
The Feb. 10 report, released last month to the Dayton Daily News... more »

Oh. I write every day. (Not this blog. My economics blog. Every day, four
a.m.)
When I write, I'm fussy. After I get the idea down on paper I start at the
top and read and fix things and take a break and read and fix things and
take the dogs out and read and fix things. I start reading at the top, stop
when I have to fix something, fix it, and start reading from the top again.
You have to read from the top, I think, to get the "flow" right. Also,
sometimes the tense is wrong or the plurals are wrong or there is some
other mistake, and you don't catch it if you start reading from th... more »

article with video:
*http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/12/magazine/fine-dining-for-second-graders.html*
video: *http://nyti.ms/1stkqAN*
I won't begrudge these kids this visit to a fancy restaurant. It may well
be highly memorable for them, and as an indirect result, one (or more) of
them may grow up to become a great chef — or more fittingly, an activist
pursuing things that really matter, such as social and economic justice,
that have gotten short shrift in recent years at the hands of both major
political parties.
Some may see this visit as "charming" — and indeed, in the most lite... more »

[image: X-37B]NASA today confirmed long-known plans for a secretive
military space plane program to take over the use of two former shuttle
hangars at Kennedy Space Center.
The Air Force's X-37B program will occupy Orbiter Processing Facilities 1
and 2, which are connected to each other, near the Vehicle Assembly
Building.
The partnership "ensures the facilities will again be used for their
originally-intended purpose — processing spacecraft," NASA said in a press
release. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
Read more

[image: C-27 Spartan]Alenia Aermacchi, a unit of Italy's Finmeccanica SpA,
on Friday defended the record of its G222 cargo plane, known as C-27A in
the U.S. military, despite fresh controversy about a $486 million U.S.
program to use the plane in Afghanistan.
"Alenia Aermacchi is proud of its work on the G222," the company said in a
statement. "In spite of many challenges, including an aggressive schedule,
the G222 was on budget and even exceeded at that time the U.S. Air Force
requirements."
Alenia said it was disappointed when the U.S. Air Force decided in March
2013 to scrap the... more »

Steel was cut today for the first of three new Royal Navy offshore patrol
vessels (OPVs) at a ceremony in Glasgow attended by the Secretary of State
for Scotland and the Ministry of Defence’s (MoD) Chief of Defence Materiel.
The vessels, which will be used by the Royal Navy to undertake various
tasks in support of UK interests both at home and abroad, will be built at
BAE Systems’ shipyards in a contract that has protected more than 800
Scottish jobs.
Defence Secretary Michael Fallon said: “This multi-million-pound contract
will benefit the dedicated workers of the Clyde, their fam... more »

[image: Canberra-class LHD]The Australian government has accepted the first
of its two Canberra-class landing helicopter docks (LHDs) from BAE Systems,
the vessel's prime contractor said in a statement on 8 October.
The ship will remain at BAE Systems' Williamstown shipyard in Melbourne
before its commissioning at Sydney later in 2014, the statement added. It
is due for delivery to the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) on 28 November.
Canberra , which is based on Navantia's Juan Carlos I aircraft carrier
design, completed its final contractor sea trials in late August.
Read more

[image: Vladivostok LHD]At the shipyard in Saint Nazaire the superstructure
sticks out like a sore thumb, a great tower surrounded by cranes and
lifting devices that signal to the town that the helicopter carrier is
moored here, in the oily waters of the naval dockyard.
Peering through the barbed wire, you can pick out its name, Vladivostok, in
Cyrillic script on its hull. A Russian Orthodox priest came to baptise this
200-metre monster. Further along, in a dry dock, its younger sister,
Sebastopol, has also been promised to the Kremlin.
Two “grey” ships, as they call naval vessels... more »

[image: USS America]The U.S. Navy will commission its newest amphibious
assault ship, USS America, Oct. 11 during a ceremony at 1 p.m. EDT in San
Francisco, according to a Defense Department news release issued today.
Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus will deliver the ceremony’s principal
address, the release said. Mrs. Lynne Pace, wife of retired U.S. Marine
Corps Gen. Peter Pace, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is
serving as the ship’s sponsor. In a time-honored Navy tradition, Mrs. Pace
will give the order to “man our ship and bring her to life.”
“This ship, forged in... more »

[image: Sea Sparrow missile]Prime Minister Stephen Harper settled a dispute
between Treasury Board and the Defence Department to approve an
$800-million, sole-source purchase of next-generation Sea Sparrow missiles
for the Royal Canadian Navy’s aging frigates, sources familiar with the
situation say.
The decision was taken early this week following a written request earlier
this month by three ministers — Industry Minister James Moore, Defence
Minister Rob Nicholson and Public Works Minister Diane Finley — that won
out over the objections of Treasury Board president Tony Clement, so... more »

The announcement on the occasion of the launching ceremony of the “Pietro
Venuti” submarine.
Today, in the presence of Minister of Defence Roberta Pinotti, the
Fincantieri shipyard in Muggiano (La Spezia) hosted the launching ceremony
for the “Pietro Venuti” submarine, the third unit of the four U212A
“Todaro” class twin units ordered to Fincantieri by the Central Unit for
Naval Armament – NAVARM for the Italian Navy.
Among others, the Chief of Staff of the Italian Navy, Admiral Giuseppe De
Giorgi, attended the ceremony. He was welcomed to the shipyard on behalf of
Fincantieri b... more »

[image: Virginia class SSN]Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus hosted a
ship-naming ceremony today to announce that SSN 793, a Virginia-class
attack submarine, will bear the name USS Oregon.
During a ceremony held at the Battleship Oregon Memorial in Tom McCall
Waterfront Park, Mabus announced the submarine will be named to honor the
long-standing history its namesake state has had with the Navy. Mabus also
recognized USS Portland (LPD 27) which he named last year in honor of
Oregon’s largest city.
“Sailors and Marines, like the citizens of Oregon throughout history, are
pioneers. The... more »

[image: Martin Hamilton-Smith]A summit on ship and submarine building in
Australia will call on the local defence industry to help the South
Australian Government strengthen its case for the Navy's next submarine
fleet to be built in Adelaide.
The State Government hopes to bring together a range of experts involved in
the naval ship building field to help form the its submission to a national
defence industry white paper.
In recent months, the Federal Government backed away from a promise to
build submarines in Adelaide with fears it was close to signing a deal to
buy the Japanese ... more »

Interesting, @ABC reporting #ISIS almost pushed out of #Kobane while
@AlJazeera says they have gotten deeper into the city. #Syria
— Military Studies (@ArmedResearch) October 11, 2014
Let's be clear about what Al Jazeera is and what it is not. It is not a
news organization. Let's just get that out of the way. And we don't have to
look at its recent coverage of the events in Syria and ISIL's onslaught
against Kobane to figure that out. We can look at its track record since
the so-called Arab Spring began.
There is a reason the Egyptian government has arrested Al Jazeera
journalist... more »

*(Click on Image to Enlarge)*
*These Are The Countries That Have Destabilized The Most Over The Past 3
Months -- Jeremy Bender, Business Insider*
Leading global risk analytics firm Maplecroft has released its latest
quarterly Civil Unrest Index. The index tracked changes in social or
political unrest that could disrupt business operations across 197
countries.
Maplecroft found that globally, civil unrest has risen in 20% of countries
worldwide from the third to fourth quarter of this year. This rising unrest
has taken the form of mass demonstrations, ethnic or religious violence,... more »

Senior Airman Matthew Bruch/U.S. Air Force/Reuters
*Air Force Pilots Say They're Flying Blind Against ISIS -- Dave Majumdar,
Daily Beast*
*Obama’s no-boots-on-the-ground pledge is keeping America from fighting an
effective air campaign in Iraq and Syria.*
Within the U.S. Air Force, there’s mounting frustration that the air
campaign against ISIS in Syria and Iraq is moving far more slowly than
expected. Instead of a fast-moving operation with hundreds of sorties flown
in a single day—the kind favored by many in the air service—American
warplanes are hitting small numbers of targets... more »

China's People's Daily says "Occupy Central" is a US-backed color
revolution ... because *it is* a US-backed color revolution.
*Image: Martin Lee was previously in Washington D.C. before an audienceat a
talk organized by the US National Endowment for Democracy (NED).He is now a
prominent co-organizer of street demonstrations he plotted withhis
counterparts in Washington earlier this year. **October 11, 2014* (Tony
Cartalucci - LD) - China's People's Daily in an article titled, "Why is the
US so keen on ‘Color Revolutions’?," states what has become abundantly
obvious over the pa... more »

*Part of Prospect Park's restored Lakeside*: *The two Lakeside tours are
booked up, but reservations aren't required for an OHNY visit to Lakeside.
The list of no-registration events is here.*
*by Ken*
I realize that a last call for Open House New York Weekend, which takes
place tomorrow and Sunday, isn't likely to be of great interest to non-New
Yorkers. It should be of paramount interest to New Yorkers, though, and I
think others might, if only in the service of curiosity about the world
around us, want to at least glance through the roughly a zillion listings
on offer. (The eve... more »

*The Nightmare Ebola Scenario That Keeps Scientists Up At Night -- Julia
Belluz, VOX*
Ebola fear and conspiracy theories are spreading faster than the disease.
But even scientists — who have thought very deeply about Ebola and
pandemics — are beginning to worry.
What they fear, however, is slightly different from the zombies and
airborne Ebola that keeps many of us up at night. I asked them about what
it would take for Ebola to spread further in America and around the world.
Here's their worst-case scenario:
*Read more* ....
*My Comment*: A good summary on what is the "nightmare... more »

I got some very shocking news today…. A fellow REAL truth seeker, known as
"Kenny" who wrote the great blog, "Kennysideshow" at www.
kennysideshow.blogspot.com, passed away suddenly on September 18th, 2014….
He was 62 years old….
I was not informed of Kenny's passing, and it came to my attention today
thanks to Buelahman, who of course writes "Buelahman's Revolt" at
www.buelahman.wordpress.com…. He wrote a short article to inform everyone
of Kenny's passing, and I have it right here for everyone to see for
themselves:
RIP KENNY
One of the most insightful, gracious, and important in... more »

The Cowen Institute at Tulane University has been promoting the New Orleans
Charter Miracle since 2007. Cowen Institute has been trying since then to
sell the “transformed” post-Katrina education system in New Orleans. The
results are tepid. Still, Cowen tries to sell this New Orleans. Consider
this excerpt from Cowen’s history: [Following Hurricane Katrina] the
majority […]

*UPDATE: October 11, 2014*. No sooner than I posted my ebola postulation
below than the Internet virtually exploded with articles like this. It*
reminds me of the theory of the 100 monkeys. Everyone knows.
**....when the virus reaches “critical mass” we will see a media blitz like
we have never seen before in this country. Most of the sheep will be
frightened into turning to the government for help. They will willingly
comply with the new vaccine requirements.*
*The rest of us, who are presumably awake, will be forced to take the
vaccine, or we will eventually be isolated where ... more »

*Comment Prompts Ebola Scare On Flight From Philadelphia -- CBS*
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — A single comment about Ebola from one passenger on a
flight out of Philadelphia prompted a scare in the air and a dramatic
response when the plane finally landed.
We want to tell you up front that no one had Ebola on the plane.
But this situation demonstrates how public health officials are trying to
stay on top of the threat and how even a mention of this deadly disease is
taken extremely seriously.
*Read more* ....
*My Comment*: If I was on that plane .... my anger would be through the
roof.

*Went to a performance of the Chiotian Drum Troupe yesterday. Here is one
of the troupe leaders.*
Today brings us several articles on the Hong Kong protests, including one
from Jeffrey Wasserstrom, the well known scholar, in Foreign Policy, and another
from John Garnaut, the Australian journalist who actually gets Taiwan.
Several years ago I had a conversation with an acutely intelligent friend
who is also an acutely intelligent observer of Taiwan, and he pointed out
that the Chen Shui-bian Administration had done such a good job separating
Taiwan from China that at academic confer... more »

*Ebola’s Next Stop May Be Ivory Coast as WHO Prepares Neighbors --
Bloomberg*
Ivory Coast, Guinea-Bissau, Mali and Senegal top a list of 13 countries the
World Health Organization is urging to be prepared for cases of the Ebola
virus to ensure the epidemic doesn’t spread further.
The WHO is concluding a three-day meeting in the Republic of Congo today
with a goal of developing a checklist African countries should use to
ensure they’re prepared. Representatives from the the U.S. Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention and African Development Bank were there as
well.
The virus ... more »

*After the 2011 Tohoku earthquake disaster, the James Perse store on
Bleecker Street did a "Japan Window." Last week the store became the site
of one of the annals' more perplexing heists.*
*by Ken*
I confess that in tonight's tale it was the "with underwear" in the head
that made me click through to this true-crime report by DNAinfo New York's
Danielle Tcholakian. I don' know why, exactly, or what I expected to find,
but the underwear -- while it's definitely in there -- turns out to be the
least of the perplexities of this story, in which the $28 boxers and $85
T-shirt are liter... more »

You would have to have blind faith in government, like a religion, to
believe the stories in the "news" that "officials" are telling us about
Eric Frein.
The latest is: they found a "diary" in which he virtually gave a
play-by-play confession. Eric Frein, they tell us, shot two cops, killing
one of them, and he has been hiding from the police for almost a month.
*'I shot him and he went quiet and still': Chilling diary of Poconos cop
killer details his sniper attack on state police barracks*
NOW...don't forget one of the earlier stories they told us: they found Eric
Frein's "soi... more »

With the November elections now less than a month away along with the near
certain Democrat loss of control of the Senate President Barack Obama is
hitting the fund raising circuit. The man has zero shame and with America
currently in arguably the worst condition *at least* since the dreary days
of the mid-1970's our emperor fiddles while the country gets closer to
burning. There are multiple crises ongoing that will have lasting effects
better deserving of the attention of the so-called leader of the free
world. Yet Mr. Obama continues to be as incompetent, tone-deaf and floating ... more »

Early this month, Oslo, Norway essentially dropped out of the bidding
to host the 2022 Winter Olympics by refusing to fund it. Part of the
possible reasons for the Norwegians' disinterest were the IOC's list of
demands, which were partly:
- Cars and drivers for IOC members, with special dedicated highway lanes
- Street lights synchronized to prioritize IOC traffic
- Separate airport entrance for IOC members
- Samsung phones for all IOC members
- All furniture must have "Olympic appearance."
- "IOC members will be received with a smile on arrival at hotel"
... more »

*Suspected Student Massacre Shocks Violence-Weary Mexico -- Newsweek*
They could not have known that what started off as a routine drive to raise
funds would end in one of the gravest criminal acts in recent history in
Mexico. Several of the 43 disappeared students had only recently arrived in
Ayotzinapa, a small town in Guerrero State, to start classes at the
teachers college when they were hauled into official vehicles by local
police, not to be seen again.
But for decades, a lethal mix had been seething in Ayotzinapa, known for
having a violent and subversive streak that draws ... more »

“These clouds of interstellar dust and gas have blossomed 1,300 light-years
away in the fertile star fields of the constellation Cepheus. Sometimes
called the Iris Nebula, NGC 7023 is not the only nebula in the sky to evoke
the imagery of flowers, though. Still, this deep telescopic view shows off
the Iris Nebula's range of colors and symmetries in impressive detail.
*Click image for larger size.*
Within the Iris, dusty nebular material surrounds a hot, young star. The
dominant color of the brighter reflection nebula is blue, characteristic of
dust grains reflecting starlight. Centra... more »

*“For The Time Of Necessary Decision”*
“The mind of time is hard to read.
We can never predict what it will bring,
Nor even from all that is already gone
Can we say what form it finally takes;
For time gathers its moments secretly.
Often we only know it’s time to change
When a force has built inside the heart
That leaves us uneasy as we are.
Perhaps the work we do has lost its soul
Or the love where we once belonged
Calls nothing alive in us anymore.
We drift through this gray, increasing nowhere
Until we stand before a threshold we know
We have to cross to come alive once more.
May we... more »

“It did not really matter what we expected from life, but rather what life
expected from us. We needed to stop asking about the meaning of life, and
instead to think of ourselves as those who were being questioned by life -
daily and hourly. Our answer must consist, not in talk and meditation, but
in right action and in right conduct. Life ultimately means taking the
responsibility to find the right answer to its problems and to fulfill the
tasks which it constantly sets for each individual.”
- Viktor Frankl (1905 - 1997)

*“If Only You Knew”*
by Teresa Marchese
“This morning, I saw a young man, hanging dead from a tree. It started out
as a typical Friday morning. It was 6:45 am. I brought the "toys" today;
weights, bars, balls and boxing gloves, to have my clients work at
stations. I run Rock Solid Fitness, a women's outdoor fitness club, at San
Francisco's Land's End. We run trails and hills and stairs on this rocky
park of cypress and redwood. But this morning, the first client to arrive
begged for a "wimpy" workout, so we headed out to Land's End trail. It was
a beautiful morning, and I thought ... more »

Posted earlier at Schools Matter Before Greg Anrig started to work for the
Century Foundation, he was a writer for Money Magazine. Somewhere along
the line, he became an expert in education policy, at least the kind that
requires “intense collaboration among administrators and teachers” (Anrig,
2013)–the same kind embraced by the Gates and Broad Foundations. […]

“Perhaps we are looking at this from a wrong perspective; this search for
the truth, the meaning of life, the reason of God. We all have this
mindset that the answers are so complex and so vast that it is almost
impossible to comprehend. I think, on the contrary, that the answers are
so simple; so simple that it is staring us straight in the face, screaming
its lungs out, and yet we fail to notice it. We're looking through a
telescope, searching the stars for the answer, when the answer is actually
a speck of dirt on the telescope lens.”
~ Jason Q.

*Chaos Theory: "The Real Butterfly Effect"*
By youngneill
"What exactly is chaos? The name "chaos theory" comes from the fact that
the systems that the theory describes are apparently disordered, but chaos
theory is really about finding the underlying order in apparently random
data.
When was chaos first discovered? The first true experimenter in chaos was a
meteorologist, named Edward Lorenz. In 1960, he was working on the problem
of weather prediction. He had a computer set up, with a set of twelve
equations to model the weather. It didn't predict the weather itself.
However thi... more »

"Heaven and Hell"
by Paulo Coelho
"A man, his horse and his dog were traveling down a road. When they were
passing by a gigantic tree, a bolt of lightning struck and they all fell
dead on the spot. But the man did not realize that he had already left this
world, so he went on walking with his two animals; sometimes the dead take
time to understand their new condition…
The journey was very long, uphill, the sun was strong and they were covered
in sweat and very thirsty. They were desperately in need of water. At a
bend in the road they spotted a magnificent gateway, all in marble, w... more »

This is following up on recent events reported here, here and, most
recently, here.
Today, Brian Leiter posted the following on his blog, *Leiter Reports*:
... the Advisory Board and I have agreed on the following statement
regarding the plan for the PGR:
The 2014-15 PGR will proceed as planned, with Berit Brogaard joining Brian
Leiter as co-editor and taking over responsibility for the surveys and the
compilation of results, with assistance as needed from Brian and the
Advisory Board. At the conclusion of the 2014-15 PGR, Brian will step down
as an editor of the PGR and join th... more »

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I've been 'around' for a few years now, pursuing the shifting goal of a sharable home-made surfers resource site focused on ease of use and variety of mostly adult ( whoa : I didn't say prurient ) content.